Everything Changes
by Izout
Summary: Falling in love is not a choice. To stay in love is. He'll never change but that doesn't stop her from wanting.


Disclaimer: Not mines. Anything here mention by name isn't mines.

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><p>Connie stared at her reflection in the mirror as she applied her last bit of make-up. She couldn't believe the big day had finally come; it was so dream-like she kept half-expecting to hear the loud drone of her alarm clock echoing throughout the room signaling her to wake up. She was preparing to give herself one more look over when she heard the door behind her creaking. That couldn't have been him, could it? He does know its bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, she reminded him as such.<p>

"You always knew how to rock the white." Slurred a voice, a familiar voice that sent a shiver down her spine. She turned around and frown at who she saw.

"Williams? What are you doing here?" She demanded.

"'Williams'? Jesus Connie, what's with the formalities now?" Billy snickered. Connie's nose crinkled in disgust when she looked at him, leaning against the door frame, his hair a tussled mess, his face flushed, shirt reeking of alcohol, and a large wet stain on his crotch. He flashed a crooked smile at her that always use to make her heart melt. Now? It only filled her with rage and repulsion.

"You didn't answer my question _Billy_," she corrected herself, "What are you doing here?"

He pushed himself off the door frame and walked up her, making Connie step back a few feet. "I came to warn you."

Connie arched an eyebrow. "Warn me?"

"You dunno what you're getting yourself into." Connie had to hold back a laugh. She was hoping her perfect day would go off without a hitch but count on an 'old friend' to disrupt the peace.

"Billy, please leave before I call my father and he _makes_ you leave." Then she looks back into the mirror to make sure everything stayed in place. Billy slams the door shut and locks it, his face is stern and serious as he takes Connie into his arms and spins her around to they're seeing eye-to-eye.

"Don't tell me you love him?" He chuckled, "Of all the guys you could've picked, you pick him?"

Connie sneered. "Jealous much, huh Williams?"

Billy laugh, but there was no humor behind it, it was a cold, empty laugh. "Jealous? Me?" He says. "What makes you think that?"

"You coming in here to crash my wedding isn't a sign of jealousy?" She smirked. "And I thought you be happy, you known him for years."

"Connie," he starts, rubbing his brow, "Its Charlie Hogan. You're going to marry Charlie fuckin' Hogan?!" Billy exploded.

"You two haven't spoken to each other in ten years, why do you care?" She reminded him.

"Is this revenge because I forgot to take you to the dance back in high school?" Billy moaned. Connie just stared at him agape. Did he really think so lowly of her that he thought she set this whole wedding up just to spite him?

"No, I'm marrying him because I love him and he loves me and we're both going to be very happy together and I want you _leave_." She told him.

"How are you going to be happy with him?" He inquired, "We both did a lot of the same shit when we were younger."

"Because I want stability." She answer, "I want a guy that I know I won't get a call from because they are in jail and need me to get money to pay their bail."

"That happen to Charlie plenty of times." Billy reminded her.

"But eventually he realized he wanted more out of life. You, on the other hand, seemed pretty content with spending the rest of your days hanging out with thugs in an abandon junkyard, drinking down beers, and starting fights."

It was true, eventually Connie got tired of having a boyfriend that she wouldn't see for days only for him to come back into her life with bruises on his body. Somebody her friends, family, and peers would always tell her he was nothing but trouble and would lead her down a bad path. Billy and Charlie were both cut from the same cloth but in her heart she knew Charlie would be the one to give her what she really wanted.

"And what if he's not the right guy for ya? What if you're getting yourself in too deep? You think Charlie gonna give you riches and stuff, but he'll probably end up working two jobs just to get you two by and still not making enough to pay half the bills. You could have the world at your feet and you're going to waste it on some dumbass bum wishing you could've done more with your life and go places and wondering why you stuck around for this shit-hole."

She'd made a promise a long time ago not to shed another tear for Billy Tessio but right then the tears ran down her perfectly stained cheeks onto the white carpet. He'd always been able to push her buttons and she knew a guy like him would never be anything stable for her, not like Charlie was and sometimes she did wish he was a little more like Billy but then other times she feared he'd hurt her like he had.

"Why would you say all those horrible things about your own best friend? What are you trying to say?" She asks.

He runs his hands through his messy hair and drums his fingers on the back of his neck.

"I dunno," he answers. "I don't want you to marry him."

She shakes her head and dabs her cheeks making the tears disappear. Billy had always wanted what he couldn't have and what he didn't want was her. It was a matter of pride, she was his trophy girl, the pretty little Catholic girl he had manage to snag, the one that stood out from the rest and now she'd moved on and there was nothing he could think of but to try and stop her without leading her into false pretences.

"Billy, what we had was special and deep down there will always be a part of me that loves you, but I've moved on and found someone I know will make me happy. That part of our lives is over, I'm not that sixteen year old you use to take to the Blue Point for a milkshake anymore." She told him. "And you're wrong about Charlie, he found a pretty important high paying job in Sacramento and we're going to be moving there after the honeymoon over."

"And how long before you leave him?" he drawls.

The comment makes her more mad, how he can think so little of her after all this time to think she'd leave the man she's about to marry for what? For nothing.

"I'd like you to leave please," she repeats. "I have to get ready. And for the record, _you_ left _me_ first."

She again turns back to her reflection and touches up the run make-up. She watches him out of the corner of her eye as he turns and makes his leave. For once she's glad to see the back of him.

Men like him were too overpowering, too dangerous, and too misleading. Charlie was safe and would take care of her she knew that, but she always knew what kind of life she allowing herself to lead.

Instead of sitting in the passenger seats of the boys' cars watching them smoke a joint, carve snakes into their flesh, and talking about cars, she be attending fancy dinners and be financially sound and making a future instead of living day to day. A man wouldn't have to explain to the children why they wouldn't be having dinner tonight because they didn't have enough food left to eat.

Change was a powerful thing and for most people it was daunting and scary, but for her she was finally ready to make the change of being a girl – a kid, and instead becoming a woman with a high standing job and a loyal, un-puzzling husband waiting for her to come home. She often wondered if the reason she dated Billy back then was as a clichéd teenage act of rebellion, it didn't matter, she was with Charlie. He wasn't Billy, and she was glad.

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><p>He watches her walk down the isle; she never looked so beautiful and he had to admit, Charlie looked good in a tux. He be lying to himself if he said he didn't wished he could trade places with Charlie so that it was <em>him<em> she walking towards to in all that white. He knows it should be him on the other end of those 'I Do's' and maybe if he'd cleaned up his act then he would've been but he weren't ever going to change for a chick, that just wasn't him.

He walked back towards his car ready to head back home and thought of all the opportunities he had and the times he had wasted them. He would never change, he knew that but she shouldn't have had to change either.

Sometimes you let the opportunities slip but maybe they slipped for a good reason, he doesn't regret letting her go he just regrets the chances he never took.

**The End.**

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><p>Feel like stretching out those creative muscles. Someone give me a challenge or prompt either in the review box or PM me and I'll see if I could do it.<p> 


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